Learn how to cut polymer clay with your Cricut machine! Use a Cricut Explore and the deep point blade or a Cricut Maker and the Knife Blade to cut out all sorts of images and shapes. This is such a game changer if you wanted to try making clay designs. Full tutorial below.
I’m really excited about today’s post. I attended an event over a year ago where I got to make clay earrings with my daughter. I loved it and went out and bought polymer clay and other supplies right away. But then I felt a little intimidated to start and my supplies stayed in the craft room unused for six months! Then, a lightbulb went off this week, that I should try cutting clay with the Cricut machine! I searched online to see if there were any tutorials, but I couldn’t find ones for what I wanted to do (there were a few older ones)
First, I tried cutting unbaked clay. I used the faux leather setting and it cut great! But then when I went to remove it from the mat, it stuck like crazy and messed up my shapes. Bummer. I even used an old mat that wasn’t sticky, and so I tried taping it to the back on the mat to see if that would work.
I finally figured the best way to cut clay with a Cricut machine! You need to get it to the right thickness and then you bake it before cutting. After baking the clay is still just pliable enough to be cut with the Cricut machine. (If your clay is not pliable and it cracking, it’s either been underbaked or overbaked!)
In this tutorial I’ll show you how to cut polymer clay with a Cricut to make clay earrings. I used Sculpey brand Souffle polymer clay, but you may choose to use another kind of polymer clay.
Clay Earrings Supplies
Sculpey Clay Souffle or another brand of Polymer Clay
Sculpey Clay Conditioner Machine (recommended to get the correct clay thickness) OR Clay Rolling Pin
Cricut Machine
Sanding block
Earring Materials (Jump Rings/Earring Wires or Posts, Hole Punch etc.)
How to Cut Clay with a Cricut Machine
The first step is conditioning your clay.
What’s conditioning? Conditioning is the process of kneading the clay to make it softer, more flexible and easier to work with. This is a very important step to get the clay to the right consistency. Conditioning can be done by hand, but to cut clay with the Cricut, I think it’s important to use the Clay Conditioner to make the clay an exact thickness. The Clay Conditioner has nine settings, with 1 being the thickest, and 9 being the thinnest setting.
The Sculpey Clay conditioning settings are as follows:
#1: 0.099 in (2.5 mm)
#2: 0.096 in (2.4 mm)
#3: 0.080 in (2.05 mm)
#4: 0.071 in (1.8 mm)
#5: 0.054 in (1.35 mm)
#6: 0.047 in (1.18 mm)
#7: 0.042 in (1.09 mm)
#8: 0.026 in (0.63 mm)
#9: 0.025 in (0.63 mm)
Start with the thickest setting (#1) on the Clay Conditioner and run your clay through the machine. It will be pretty hard at first until the clay softens. Fold the clay and run it through again. Repeat this a few times and then move to the next thinner setting (#2). Again, run the clay through the machine, folding after it comes and running it back through again. Repeat until you have reached setting #6 which is 1.18 mm. The Cricut can cut materials up to 2.4 mm thick, but I found this to be the thickness I liked best. You can always play around with your settings and cut the thicker clay if you wish.
This step can be done with just a rolling pin and your hands, but you’ll need to estimate how thick you are rolling it out.
Once your clay is conditioned, form it into a rectangular shape. Now it’s time to bake it.
From Sculpey’s website:
Bake at 275 °F (130 °C) for 30 minutes per 1/4 in (6 mm) thickness. DO NOT MICROWAVE. Baking should be completed by an adult. DO NOT EXCEED THE ABOVE TEMPERATURE OR RECOMMENDED BAKING TIME.
If you are using another brand of polymer clay make sure to use their baking instructions
How Do You Know When Polymer Is Done Baking? When polyclay is cured correctly, your cooled piece can be marked when you press a fingernail into it, but your nail won’t sink in. It will be difficult to break, but if it is thin it might bend easily. It will break or cut cleanly, without a crumbly texture.
I’ll admit there is a little trial and error to this part because ovens can have hot spots, and they don’t have the exact time for a piece that is 1.18 mm thick. I end up baking for around 15 minutes, but remember that is what I found works best in my oven. You’ll probably want to do a few test pieces to figure out your baking time.
How to Make the Clay Earrings
Once you have your clay cured, you can choose your design. If you would like to make the ghost or skull earrings, here is the Design Space Link. Remember you will need to put holes for the jump rings into your shapes, so don’t make them too small!
Tape your baked clay to your strong grip mat using masking tape or painters tape. Click on Make It.
Depending on what thickness you decided to make your clay and what brand of clay you are using, you may need to play around with the material settings a bit to get your clay just right. I found using the Knife Blade with the Maker was most effective, or using the Explore Deep Cut Blade also worked.
Once you have cut your clay, you may need to sand the edges a bit with your sanding block ( I found this most necessary when I used clay with glitter in it).
Then use the Impress punch tool or a sharp needle to put a hole in your earring. Alternatively you could glue on metal posts with some super glue instead of using the hole method.
To add fun details, I made the flower crown separately, baked it and then super glued it on.
I’m excited to try making other clay earrings with the Cricut machine. Have any questions? Let me know in the comments below!